Photo of the Week

Summit Road was the fire line for recent fires between here and Highland Way.

Every couple of years I ride Summit Road south, taking off from Loma Prieta Road. I’ve been riding here since the early 1980s, and Jobst Brandt and friends were riding this road back in the 1970s. It always has been a public road by any definition of the word.

It’s all ancient history now, but in 2000 a Santa Clara County judge made it official, after a logging company filed suit to be allowed access to property for logging operations. You’re welcome to read the legal back and forth. I kept this judgment because it wasn’t going to be available on the Web forever.

You’ve got views of Santa Clara Valley and Monterey Peninsula, and this is one of the few places where you can see both at the same time. I prefer riding south because it’s mostly downhill, after a strenuous climb on Mt. Bache Road to Loma Prieta Road. The dirt portion is about eight miles. The ride is best done in the early spring before the road gets dusty.

The ride home takes me down Mt. Madonna Road (also dirt and steep) to the lovely Redwood Retreat Road. From there I take Watsonville Road over to Uvas Road and back home on McKean Road. It’s an interesting 76-mile loop for me.

A vestige of the past. Land owners did their best to keep people out. Why residents had it against bikes and not cars or motorbikes is beyond me. We don't make noise.

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This entry was posted on March 13, 2011 at 12:06 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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We did a nice ride up Soda Springs past the old air force base then through to summit rd. That was a couple of years ago. I tried to do it in reverse to drop to Elsman, and got chased out by some land owner.